Defeat at Malachor V
by Cyanida
Summary: An attempt at explaining Bao Dur's past and how he became what he is in KOTOR II. The story takes place during the Mandalorian wars and culminates at Malachor V. Excerpt: The Mandalorian ship now was so close he could see more and more details it wore tra
1. Chapter 1

**Prequel Bao-Dur: Defeat at Malachor V**

**Chapter 1: Planet Lorista on the Outer Rim.**

The Mandalorians were heavily bombarding the Zabrak colonies, forcing their inhabitants to defend themselves at a higher and higher cost. Many of the resisting worlds surrendered under the increasing force, while others waited valiantly for a Republic response that didn't seem to be coming.

This particular military base wasn't different from any of the thousands of others. It was hastily put together, but fulfilled its purpose of holding this strategic location. The Mandalorians had yet to find it, because it blended into the natural landscape of the planet well. There were only two ways that the Mandalorians were going to find it… an uncloaked ship that landed or took-off from the base or if it was stumbled upon by accident.

The activity level of the base was high, as usual; Bao-Dur looked at the combat soldiers drilling as he wiped grease from his hands with an already too-soiled cloth. He had been working for hours on the repairs of this strike-craft and wanted nothing more than to get some sleep. It was almost hypnotic watching the soldiers train in unison, but then something caught his attention. _A human female… here?_ he thought. Even from this distance he could see the way she moved marked her as a solider… A most intriguing soldier, from this distance he could see that her hair was long and brown with streaks of gold in it. Tightly set in a ponytail, wagging as she walked. A tiny, petite woman, but her stance said otherwise: looks were deceiving. Her presence piqued his curiosity. _What would a human solider be doing on a Zabrak base?_ There were some other races out here on the Outer Rim and even some on this particular base, but not many humans and definitely no women. Bao-Dur shrugged. _Our paths will probably cross at some point. _He scrubbed his face with a now clean palm. _I must really be tired. This shouldn't be that big of a deal!_ Even after that mental rebuke, he continued to follow the woman with his eyes until he lost sight of her in a crowd. He put the cloth down on the workbench and headed off towards his quarters, the remote quietly following in his trail.

Upon entering his quarters, Bao-Dur was relieved to see that his roommate wasn't there. It wasn't that he didn't like him; he just really wanted to be alone. He was still thinking of that woman and, strangely enough, he couldn't seem to get her out of his mind. That bothered him. He had always thought of himself as a tech-minded man, not the emotional type at all. _Certainly not the type to see a face in the crowd and become obsessed_. Bao shook his head, spinning with these feelings, as he turned on the remote's stand by mode for the night. He sighed while undressing and got into bed, her face still lingering behind his closed eyelids. Slowly he drifted into sleep.

Bao-Dur was awaken by his roommate, Alk Zoth, who was drunk again and having some trouble wrestling himself out of his own clothing. Amidst the loud thumps and curses, Bao-Dur half sat up in bed. Rubbing his eyes sleepily, asked: "Why the big celebration, Alk?"

"Didn't you hear? We beat a battalion of Mandalorians! Sent them running with their tails between their legs… hic… that is if they had tails. You missed out on a hic great party, Bao!"

Bao-Dur sighed. He hadn't been in any shape for a serious celebration tonight that was for sure. He would have probably fallen asleep on the bar after his first glass of juma.

"And," Alk continued, "… you should have seen this girl!"

Bao-Dur suddenly looked up at his roommate and his heart gave a little jump. _It couldn't be!_

"What girl?"

"There was this fabulous hic girl dancing for everyone. All the guys are just crazy about her!"

He couldn't believe his ears! Was every male on the base as taken with this human woman as he was? She really must have some strange effect on Zabrak males! He felt a strange pain, as if he had lost something that he had never even had the chance to get.

"So," he began, "… did she dance as well as Zabrak women?"

"Huh?" Alk gave Bao-Dur frown. "She was Zabrak! What did you expect? A Rodian?"

Bao-Dur didn't answer. He felt rather stupid. He really couldn't get this woman out of his mind and had just taken it for granted that neither would anyone else who laid eyes on her. _I need to do something about this… I can't go around making a fool of myself!_ So, he did what he always did when he couldn't sleep. He went down to the hangars, the remote floating in his backwater, and wandered to droid maintenance to get some work done.

He found some droids that needed their memories wiped, so he started in on that. The first astromech droid protested, beeping wildly. Bao-Dur spoke calmly to the droid, reassuring it as he hooked it to the terminal. The work made him feel calm, so he concentrated on it. It took him longer than usual to lose himself in the work, but finally he felt almost normal.

"Hey Bao-Dur! Wake up!" One of his fellow techs shook his shoulder harshly. Bao-Dur tried to focus his eyes and found that he'd fallen asleep by the terminal. His body felt stiff and sore, and he had an imprint of the terminal keyboard on his left cheek. For once he was happy he didn't have any hair, because if he had, it would surely be sticking up in all directions. The co-worker was watching him impatiently. The remote was chirping excitedly to get his attention, floating back and forth beside him.

"What is it?" Bao-Dur snapped, still a bit groggy after his sudden awakening.

"The commander wants to see you this in his office. ASAP!"

_Wasn't this typical?_ He tried to pull himself together, stretched to get rid of some of the stiffness, and looked around. It felt like someone had hit him in the stomach; the woman who had invaded his dreams… waking and sleeping… was standing just behind the other tech. _How could I not have seen her?_ _Probably because I am still not fully awake..._ he winced when he thought of how he must look in her eyes. He hardly dared look at her, but he just couldn't seem to be able to help himself. Their gaze met, a smile glittering in her eyes, and yet her mouth was a firm line. _But those eyes... _brown with a hint of green in them he sighed… _Now__ they were sparkling, clearly showing how amused she was by the situation and that somehow she was aware of my predicament. But how could she know what I have been thinking? _They'd never met before, so somehow he must be projecting his feelings without knowing it. But then, this situation would be considered comical even without knowing how he felt...

"I'm Nabriah Drakken," she offered reaching out her hand; Bao-Dur looked blankly at her hand as if he had no idea what he was supposed to do with it.

"Oh," Nabriah gasped, "I keep forgetting you Zabrak don't have the same customs as my people. Sorry, it wasn't my intention to insult you." She started to draw her hand back when Bao-Dur finally realized that he was supposed to take her hand in his. Quickly he reached out for her, grabbing and pressing her hand hard to his; a bit harder than perhaps he realized, from the look in her eyes. But she never made a sound or protest. She was still smiling, except her jaw was just but a bit more clenched than before. Bao-Dur felt really stupid now. _This day was becoming one of those you just wanted to end as soon as possible._ He had a feeling this wasn't the last thing that'd go wrong today and just wanted to rewind to the point where he'd gone to sleep in his bed last night.

"Well, we'd better go see the commander now, he's waiting for us," Nabriah said looking at Bao-Dur. She completely ignored the curious looks from Bao-Dur and the other Zabrak tech. Whether they were at a loss as to why the commander wanted to see Bao-Dur…or why a human female was ordering them around…she couldn't tell. But she didn't have time to figure it out or worry about it now.

"Ok, let's get going then," Bao-Dur all but stammered. He fell in along side of her when she turned to leave, neither of them looking; you could almost touch the tension between them as they walked in silence. Even the remote kept its distance and hovered quietly behind them.

"So how did you end up here?" he dared ask after a couple of minutes of painful silence. She turned her head and looked straight into his eyes.

"I volunteered, I wanted to fight the Mandalorians." The look on her face was fierce. He could almost feel her anger and wondered what had caused it. She turned her face away with a jerk, as if she were putting a period on this line of questioning. Bao-Dur respected her wish, but was even more curious of her reasons for being in the Zabrak army.

"And you?" she asked him, looking at him sideways.

"Me? Same story as many others here. My family was killed during a Mandalorian assault... and I just couldn't let them get away with it."

"I'm sorry," she said in a low voice." I know the feeling...first the grief and then...the anger... it's just... so... consuming..." Silence fell again, but this time the tension was gone; instead there was some kind of understanding between them. All too soon, as far as Bao-Dur was concerned, their walk was over and they stood in front of the door leading to the commander's chambers. Nabriah opened the door and entered and Bao-Dur followed. The commander was reading a data pad and barely looked up as they entered.

They stood there waiting; finally the commander put the data pad aside.

"Good to see you," he said, eyes sweeping from one to the other. "I will come right to the point. I need the two of you for a special assignment." Bao-Dur felt a sudden jolt of anticipation about working closely with this woman who had taken over his thoughts. He just wondered what kind of mission the commander had in mind...

"I don't know how much you know about each other," the commander continued, "so I'll just make a brief sum up for you. Nabriah, you were chosen due to your exceptional stealth skills and knowledge of the Mandalorian command ship orbiting this planet."

_She is a spy..._ the thought ran though his brain as the words were spoken. _She must be, otherwise she wouldn't have that kind of knowledge… How close to the Mandalorians had she been? Had she infiltrated their ranks?_ A series of questions popped up and floated around, wanting answers and making it hard for Bao-Dur to concentrate on the commander as he continued to speak.

"Bao-Dur…You've been chosen due to your exceptional technical skills and knowledge of explosives." _What kind of mission is this_? he thought, but he didn't have to wonder for long before the commander went on. "We have to take out their command ship to hinder them from occupying and thus prevent the evacuation of this planet. Nabriah has been gathering information about how to make this possible. The intelligence points to a small team infiltration as having the best chance of accomplishing this mission. Your job will be to board the ship and plant thorium charges in their ion drive, hopefully without getting detected by the crew."

_Oh that's a piece of cake_, Bao-Dur ironically thought to himself. He glanced sideways at Nabriah and found she looked almost amused… a hint of a smile playing in the corners of her mouth and her eyes were glittering. _She seemed to enjoy living dangerously… this woman really was a mystery._

"Well, will you take the assignment or will I have to look for other candidates?" The commander scrutinized them both as if to see if he could find any signs of reluctance in either of them.

"I'm in, Sir!" Nabriah answered without hesitation. "I'm prepared and willing to take the risk. The question is if Bao-Dur will be able to master the essentials of using stealth well enough within the limited time we have to prepare for this." Bao-Dur felt a bit insulted but had to admit that he was better at repairing stealth generators than using them. He'd only tried them to see how they worked.

"You will have two days to prepare him for stealth and go through the basics." _This is really getting better and better all the time_, Bao-Dur sighed, _but well it is war after all_. He just wasn't used to being on the front lines, or behind the enemy lines... Nabriah looked expectantly at him waiting for his answer. He nodded "Yes Commander!"

"Good! Nabriah will teach you how to use stealth and you should also practice some hand-to-hand combat. She will also fill you in on the mission plan. You may leave now."

"Come," Nabriah said to him and took the lead as she set out for the training grounds. He'd no choice but to follow.

"What shall we practice first, stealth or combat: Your choice." There it was again that twinkle in her eyes… It was as if she considered him fearful of doing combat drills with a woman. _Well, I'll show her..._ _I'm proficient in most forms of combat. I have certainly sparred with women before. She'll be no different,_ he thought. _I have the advantage in both height and weight. I can take her easily._ Bao-Dur puffed up as he these thoughts raced through his head. But then the image of her body pinned under his on the mat flashed in his mind. He shook himself mentally to clear the image. _I will have to control those thoughts or she will have me at a real disadvantage!_

"I say you show me the basics of using stealth first," he stammered uncomfortably. "I'm trained in combat so that doesn't feel as… ummm… urgent."

"Ok, stealth it is then." She walked over to a locker at the end of the training ground, searched for a minute and then pulled out a stealth generator belt. "Here, put this around your waist; but don't turn it on just yet. I want to show you something first. First rule in using stealth is to move while making as little noise as possible. Walk slowly… sneak. Don't run unless you are able keep your breathing to a minimum. Panting always reveals you. Second, certain types of light can make you more visible… artificial sunlight for example. Third, always keep your belt charged or you'll end up visible at the worst moment possible. Not to be recommended, believe me!" She looked at him intently for a moment. "And that remote of yours will pose a problem if you intend to bring it with you. I've never seen the likes of it with the Mandalorians, so I'd appreciate if you could leave it behind on this mission. Is that ok?"

As the remote started beeping in a most annoyed fashion, Bao-Dur turned to the tiny floating droid. "She's right you know, you might cause us to be detected and it isn't as if I'd be gone for ever." He received a prolonged beep of resignation followed by a whirr as an answer." It's ok; the remote will stay here on the base. He can keep an eye on the other techs so they don't mess up things while I'm gone." This suggestion was met with a self-important sounding twitter, which made them both smile.

"I've never seen someone treat droids like you do. You seem to communicate with them without trouble, and you show them great respect," she said in a soft voice that was filled with admiration and wonder.

"I've always liked droids, almost better than people. They are loyal and easy to understand. They never have any ulterior motives. I like that. You know where you stand with them. And if they malfunction I can always repair or re-program them." He laughed. "That's a bit harder to do with people… to reprogram them, I mean."

Her smile broadened. "I agree to that. I've met some people I'd like to _re-program,_" she muttered with a wink

"Ok, let's do some stealth ability tests. I'm going to leave the room for a few minutes and when I return, I want you to use stealth and sneak up behind me without me noticing it. Well, at least not too much," she added still smiling at him. "Just succeed in placing your hand on my shoulder, and you'll have passed the first test."

Nabriah walked out of the room, leaving Bao-Dur alone with the remote. _Blast!_ He had to keep the remote from following him around while he was in stealth mode, otherwise it'd be like having a great arrow pointing at him yelling _here I am!_

"Please stay here by the door and _don't _follow me, ok? She's not supposed to detect me or I'll be doing this the rest of the day." A series of beeps acknowledged his request. The tiny sphere floated to the doorway where it hovered contentedly, beeping softly to itself.

"Great," Bao mumbled under his breath, "now I only have to switch on the belt and keep quiet." He moved away from the entrance and stood still, trying to control his breathing and remain as quiet as possible. The more he tried the harder it got. _Relax_, he told himself, _don't think about it, and just stay calm._

Nabriah entered again looking around to see if she could catch any sight of him. Stealth fields could be detected by a slight blur as the person using stealth passed in front of objects. She saw nothing and began to slowly walk around the room.

Bao-Dur all but held his breath as he waited for her to turn her back to him. Finally she stood right in front of him, just some feet away barely out of reach. It seemed like she was looking straight at him, but then she turned around still searching the room for his presence. Slowly he reached out his hand and touched her shoulder.

"Got you!" he couldn't help himself from exclaiming. This was just like playing hide and seek as a child … only with far more expensive equipment than the rocks of Iridonia!

"Good! Actually I couldn't hear you breathe nor did you make any un-necessary movements. Seems like you've got this lesson down. Now we'll do something a little more difficult."

They kept practicing all afternoon, Bao-Dur pretty soon got the hang of how to move while any bystanders would least notice. He also worked on moving through doorways, especially when others were walking through them at the same time. Using stealth meant that there was a lot to keep in mind; so when they were finished, his brain felt overwhelmed with new impressions and things to remember. Nabriah complemented him on being a fast learner and he replied by saying she was a good teacher.

"Oh," she said "we've completely forgotten to eat! I'm starving! How about you?"

"I could probably eat a Krag right now. Let's go to the cantina and get some food or what it is they serve there."

"Bao-Dur, don't you know that the worse food you give your soldiers the better they fight?" She teased him. "Even the Tusken Raiders knew that."

"Tusken Raiders?" He raised an eyebrow.

"An ancient people that lives on Tatooine, a planet very far away. Never mind. Let's go."

There were a lot of people at the cantina, but they managed to find some seats and sat down to eat. "Oh Sith's blood!" Nabriah spat as she took the first bite of her food. She was astounded at how horrible it was. "Our army must be invincible if they eat this!" she flinched, then chuckled.

Bao-Dur laughed at her

"This isn't the worst they've served here, believe me!" He winked at her, shaking his head. She laughed too and they started discussing what do next. She had their mission plans available in a briefing room down at headquarters and wondered if he felt up to going through them or if he wanted to quit for the night.

"Actually, I can't help but wonder what they are doing down in the hangar," he admitted guiltily. "I seem to have a problem trusting others to take care of the repairs."

The remote added some whirrs and beeps as if it wanted to agree with him.

"It's ok," Nabriah replied. "We need to get down there anyway at some point to have a look at the vessel we're going to use to get on board that command ship."

Bao-Dur had completely overlooked the fact that they needed to get some kind of transport from the planet to the ship. He just hadn't given it a single thought. _Well, it seems I'm about to find out now._

"I've got a little surprise for you in one of those hangars," she said; her eyes were now beaming with sheer joy. _This doesn't look too good..._ Bao-Dur thought; the look on her face probably meant some kind of transportation he wasn't going to like at all... Then he remembered... _no, it couldn't be..._ _please don't let it be THAT ship..._ He'd been repairing it some time ago, just out of pure curiosity and to get to know how it worked. Its design wasn't anything like the Zabrak ships and it was purely built for warfare nothing else. He really hoped it wasn't that one... But judging by her enthusiasm it couldn't be any other...


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Hangar:**

All the way to the hangars he kept his hopes up, but arriving there Bao-Dur realized that his fears had come true. She went straight for the very hangar that kept the dreaded Basilisk war droid. Nabriah walked right up to the Basilisk caressing its hull with one hand and eyeing it lovingly. "They are so beautiful," she whispered. "And their capacity in battle is fearsome, devastating..." He watched her as she walked around it, touching it and admiring it almost as if she was in love with the craft. As he watched he felt a sting of jealousy. _This was really stupid, how could you be jealous of a spacecraft? Was it the way she caressed the hull or the way she looked at it; do I in fact want her to look upon me that way?_ He swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to sound normal.

"I've done all the repairs on her..."

"I know," she answered softly "I was watching you."

But he'd been all alone except for the remote; the other techs weren't skilled enough to deal with a basilisk or didn't want to touch it with a ten foot Echani staff due to its Mandalorian origin. Suddenly it dawned on him... she'd been using stealth of course...

"Yes," she said, almost as if she'd been reading his mind."I was there, invisible to you, watching and enjoying seeing your skilled hands at work. Mending this broken beauty, restoring her and even upgrading her."

"Why did you do this?" he asked with mixed feelings.

"I wanted to know who you were and if I could trust you." Still, she was absorbed by the basilisk.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" He couldn't stand it any longer, he was mad at her for paying more attention to that craft when he had all these strange feelings messing around with him. He felt like he would explode. She turned around when she heard the anger in his voice, looking surprised at him.

"Sorry, I got carried away... that was very rude of me, I apologize," she bowed slightly before him. "Didn't mean any disrespect." Now she really looked unhappy about it.

"Why were you spying on me?" It came out a lot harsher than he meant it and he regretted the choice of words the very minute he spoke them.

Nabriah looked him straight in the eyes

"As I said I wanted to know who you were and if I could trust you on a mission like the one we're going to set out upon."

"You could have skipped the stealth...and just tried to talk to me…"

Her face turned into a stiff mask and her eyes seemed to gaze into some distant place. "It's not easy to be a female among men you know; most men either reject the thought of females contributing to the war effort and some just can't keep their equipment in place... Others put on a show and… well there's a lot of reasons why I did what I did. I wanted to see how you were as a person unaffected by my female presence, now I know it wouldn't have mattered at all, but then I didn't want to risk it."

_I'm not affected by her female presence? Am I that good at hiding my true emotions? She certainly seemed unaware at least. _"I'm sorry..." he said."I've never thought about how it is to be on the receiving end of men's behaviour."

The smile returned to her face and the defensive stance she had taken during the conversation was replaced by a much more relaxed one. She drew her breath. "Ok. Can we consider this subject as finished then?" Expectantly she looked at him from under her bangs.

"Yes... let's get to the task at hand." He turned his attention to the Basilisk. "Do you know how to fly one of these?"

"Yes, I've flown this one actually. I'm the one responsible for the condition she was in before you put her back together." The way she said it was both challenging and teasing, as if Nabriah wanted to test what his reaction to this would be. Bao-Dur looked back at her, shaking his head with a smirk on his face.

"You really need to practice some landing techniques then." He had to take a quick jump backwards to avoid the punch she threw at him. "Whoa! Bit edgy are we?" he panted "I was only kidding!" Looking at her he realized she'd been doing the same, only a bit more physical.

"Well, actually the landing part didn't go too well last time, but that might have been due to all the Zabrak crafts trying to blow me to pieces while doing it," she responded with a wide grin. "So you'll have to blame your own guys for all the hours you had to spend on this beauty. I was only trying to deliver the information I had received and the only way off the Mandalorian ship was to nick one of their war droids," Nabriah sighed. "But it sure didn't feel good to see how messed up she was... Though you can't see it now after you've been at her." The look she gave him struck him right in his heart, it was full of admiration and true appreciation; although he knew it was his tech skills and not him these feelings were directed to, it still made him glow inside.

The remote had been pretty silent but now it started chirping and whirring like a maniac. Bao-Dur laid his eyes on it "What's the matter?"

"Beep beep bop!"

"Oh, I completely forgot that, good that you reminded me of it!" Nabriah looked puzzled from the remote to Bao-Dur and back again.

"What are you talking about?"

Bao-Dur turned to her. "He reminded me that there were some computer problems we didn't get around to finishing last time we worked on her. And I've barely had time to sleep lately, so I haven't gotten around doing it and then I completely forgot about it."

The guilty look on his face was more than Nabriah could take. "Perhaps I can be of some help; I'm not too bad with computers you know." The alluring smile and her glittering eyes told him that she probably was way better than she wanted to admit.

"Ok, let's go inside and see what we can do about it then."

They boarded the Basilisk. The cockpit, being designed for a crew of two, was pretty cramped and sitting there forced Bao-Dur and Nabriah to be very close physically. It was impossible to move without touching one another and even the remote felt huge in these surroundings. Nabriah suddenly regretted she'd offered to help him. This was going to be tough, being so close to him, perhaps or even touching him... Bao-Dur wasn't aware of the fact that he had the very same effect on Nabriah as she had on him. There was some kind of electricity between them, but both were unsure of the other and tried to hide behind their respective assignments. Bao-Dur activated the navicomputer; while looking at the lines that popped up on the screen he added: "The navi comp seems to suffer from some kind of malfunction during start up, so we'll have to go through all the software and see if the problem lies there, ok?" He glanced at her from the side. Nabriah leaned over to see the error message that appeared on screen; this brought her to almost end up in Bao-Dur's lap, causing them both to stop breathing for a very short moment. Trying to repress her body's reaction and wondering if she'd just imagined that he'd reacted the same way, she stared hard at the screen. Bao-Dur felt as if he'd forgotten all about computers when she leaned over him like that... he could hardly breathe when she was so close. Somehow he managed to pull himself together and focus on the screen.

Nabriah scrutinized the lines and burst out: "Oh! I think I know what the problem is,"she blushed looking Bao-Dur straight in his eyes. "Uh... I... sliced it... when I borrowed it... and... Well... it might... be the programme I used that is causing this malfunction..." Her voice faded with every word, so when she came to the finish Bao-Dur could hardly hear what she was saying. He raised en eyebrow while watching her squirm under his look.

"And..?" he asked, "is there a way of reversing or removing that?"

Nabriah leaned back in her seat, and dried some sweat off her forehead. "Yes, I've got the programme in my quarters; I'll go get it immediately." She started to get up but didn't think of the remote, she rose so quickly that she bumped into him and fell over Bao-Dur in the process. "Ouch!" she yelled out in pain while trying to get out of his lap, which wasn't so easy considering the limited space in the cockpit. So she ended up pawing all over Bao-Dur trying to get up, blushing heavily during the whole mess. Bao-Dur tried to be helpful and gave her a hand but they were entangled in each other and the equipment of the craft. So all efforts on both sides just forced them into more physical contact, until he finally managed to get a decent grip around her waist and could haul her back into her seat. Bao-Dur took a deep breath and looked at her out of the corner of his eye afraid of his own reaction: his pulse was beating fast, blood flowing into places where it shouldn't be...

Nabriah didn't dare to look him in the eyes, equally scared and upset. Silence fell; this time is wasn't a calm reassuring one, but an electrical charge just waiting to go off...

Neither of them dared speak a word. Silently Nabriah climbed out, Bao-Dur watching her every move, while the remote was beeping crossly about Bao-Dur neglecting that it also had gotten a blow in the process. He sighed as she left the Basilisk, wondering how this whole mission would work if he kept losing control over his emotions all the time? He had to restrain himself from showing the growing attraction he felt for her, he waited for his body to calm down before he too got out of the craft. He certainly didn't need her to notice what the close encounter of theirs had resulted in...

The hangar was empty; Nabriah had probably rushed off to get that programme of hers so they could fix the navi computer. That was just as well, now he got some time to collect himself and focus on the remaining repairs. He glanced at the remote: "Did that hit mess something up?"

"Beep! Biip!"

He laughed "Ok, no harm done then?" It was only mad at him for paying more attention to Nabriah than itself. "Didn't know you were the jealous kind of droid, uh?" he added. "Might as well have a look at you anyway while we're waiting around for Nabriah to return." Bao-Dur went to the workbench and the remote followed him willingly. "I'll just shut you down while I work on you, ok?"

"Beep!" He focused completely on the remote, the work absorbed him, the sense of time was lost to him while working and he felt at peace with himself as always. The troubles, the war all those things ceased to exist in his consciousness for as long as he was working.

"I'm back…" The soft voice startled him; he'd completely forgotten Nabriah. Bao-Dur raised his head and saw her standing there waving a holo disc at him.

"Found it so now we can complete repairing the computer programme." She watched him carefully "You want to do it yourself or..." the words were left hanging in the air as if she didn't know how to continue.

Bao-Dur suspected she was embarrassed over what had happened earlier in the cockpit. _Perhaps she fears the close physical contact the environment forces upon us?_ _Well, I can understand her; she probably finds a Zabrak pretty unattractive, being human... _

"Since you know the programme and I don't, I'd really need your help. No use if I make things worse, uh?" He gave her an inquiring look. She nodded in reply.

"Ok." was all she said and started to board the Basilisk again, hoping she'd be able to keep out of too much close contact with Bao-Dur while working.

Soon they sat in the cockpit hunched over the screen, the holodisc uploaded and Nabriah directing Bao-Dur which parts of it to run in order to restore the navi computer. This time both kept a physical and mental distance, well aware of each other's presence and the effect it had had on them. Neither of them realizing that the other had felt the same way...

It didn't take long to finish and when the screen announced that the navi computer was ready, Bao-Dur's face lit up with a broad grin as he turned to Nabriah. "Childs play!" he exclaimed with his soft kind of voice. Nabriah couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Mission accomplished," she returned.

"What now then?" he asked while getting off the Basilisk. Nabriah was stretching out her arms and legs, which had become numb from the cockpit session.

"How about some physical training? Or perhaps you need to get some sleep?" She gave him a searching look, as if to check his condition. Bao-Dur shook his head

"Nah, I'll manage." _She won't be that tough to take out in combat_, he thought to himself. _She is a lot smaller than I and not as muscled as I am. I'll win on sheer strength_, he smiled to himself.

"What's that smile on your face about?"

"Oh, nothing particular, just something that came to mind," he answered still smiling, quite enjoying the future prospect of physical contact with Nabriah under legal forms. And defeating her wouldn't hurt either; somehow that manly need to prove him as the stronger of the two wormed its way into his mind. He just hoped he wouldn't hurt her, so he'd probably hold back just to make sure of that.

Nabriah was amused watching Bao-Dur's smiling face; _Oh I'm almost certain I know what he is thinking... I've seen it before, my small size and the fact I'm a female always makes them think they'll defeat me. They trusted only too much in their own strength and by the look of Bao-Dur, Zabrak males weren't that different from human males... _"Well, to the mat then."


	3. Chapter 3

**The Mission:**

When they arrived at the training centre, in the outskirts of the military facility, they found the building completely empty. Nabriah cast an eye on her chronometer, and found they'd been in the hangar for so long that most people had gone to bed.

"Sure you don't want to get some sleep?"

Being the will-powered type, Bao-Dur rejected her proposal. "We need some workout after all the sitting around in that cramped cockpit. My body feels stiffer than a droid without greasing." The look he gave her was so definite she didn't want to argue with him.

"Ok." Nabriah just removed her jacket and her boots "I prefer fighting bare foot," she explained when she saw Bao-Dur's puzzled look at her naked feet.

"I'll just take of my tool belt and that'll be enough," he said as he unbuckled his belt and put it on a bench beside the fighting mat.

Nabriah looked at him in a measuring kind of way, like she was contemplating how to take him on most efficiently. Bao-Dur was still a bit worried that he'd end up hurting her while fighting so he thought he'd play it defensively and wait for her to attack.

They circled around each other, waiting, watchful and then suddenly Nabriah made a move. She'd seen an opening in his stance and took advantage of it making him come off balance. He managed to defend himself and block her attack, but now he was aware that she might look fragile and small, but was very capable of hitting hard. They kept circling, making occasional attacks, blocking and counterattacking each other for a long time. Bao-Dur was beginning to feel the effects of staying awake for too long, but as stubborn he was, he wasn't going to surrender. _Oh no!_ His thoughts began to wander from the sparring practice as he watched her strong but delicate movements; he wanted to conquer her in more ways than one... Sweat was running down his spine, his body tense, anticipating an attack anytime. Bao-Dur decided to make a move instead of waiting; he came at her full force and... suddenly he lay flat on the floor with Nabriah on top of him, sitting astride over his hips, pressing a point somewhere on his neck making his arms useless, incapacitated; her legs neatly hooked around his so he couldn't move them either to get free. _She was a lot stronger than she looked..._ he thought, lying there wondering what the Force had happened. She'd been so fast, using his own strength against him, making him fall and then this... She sat there looking quite amused by the situation. Bao-Dur felt with increasing embarrassment that at least one part of his body hadn't quite got the incapacitated part...and by the look of Nabriah's face she had noticed too. Eyes glittering with laughter and mischief she teased him.

"Did you leave a hydro spanner in your pocket?" Bao-Dur reddened as she confirmed his suspicion. Before he had a chance to answer, she jumped to her feet and started to walk towards the showers.

"Let's hit the showers and then get some rest," she said over her shoulder "and by the way," she added "make your shower a cold one, seems like you'll need it." That was pretty foul of her to say, but it just spilled out of her before she could stop it, perhaps because she was afraid that he'd become aware that she too had reacted. She hurried away leaving him lying on the floor with his self-esteem battered, feeling betrayed by his body and angry with her for commenting on it. Slowly he got to his feet, the numbness fading from his arms. The only place he was hurt was in his heart. _Well, that certainly makes clear what she thinks of me_, he sighed to himself, _only a tech that it's ok to tease but no more_. His walk was as heavy as his state of mind, but somehow he got to the shower, got undressed, stepped into the refresher and let the cold water pour over his body. He stood there with his face turned upwards and just let the water cool him off. It was soothing; even the aching in his soul began to subside. Bao-Dur was startled by the banging on the door.

"Hey, Bao-Dur!" It was Nabriah, shouting through the door. "See you tomorrow early; we got a lot of work in front of us. G'night!" He didn't even manage to holler something back before he heard her footsteps fading away down the hall. _Oh well_, he thought, _another day with that woman and I'll go crazy. She really gets to me; I'll have to work harder to keep my true feelings away from her._ He sighed as he shut off the shower, dried himself and got dressed again. Bed's calling; he was tired to the bone...

Bao-Dur woke up not too sure of his whereabouts; for a minute he almost thought he was at home again. That was, until he saw the durasteel grey walls. After a glance at the chronometer he quickly jumped out of bed. _Sith's blood!_ He'd slept in! Muttering, he got dressed and suddenly stopped dead, _something is missing, but what?_ He took a real good look around the room, and realized he'd forgotten the remote down in the hangar. Well, there wasn't time to go get it now; he'd have to stop by there later. Now he had to find Nabriah and go through the course of action. Bao-Dur had to run down to security headquarters to make it on time. Nabriah was already waiting for him outside the building, glancing at her chronometer wondering where he'd gone. "Sorry," he panted, "I seem to have overslept."

She looked at him, her face blank of expression. "Let's get started!" was all Nabriah said as she turned her back on him and went in.

They'd been given access to a room that stored the Mandalorian ship's blueprints. There they found everything they'd need to penetrate the ship's defences, from notes on patrols to security measures.

"As you already know, the plan is that the two of us are supposed to enter the ship by the means of the Basilisk war droid. I've estimated the best landing bay on board the ship, taking into consideration the closeness to the engine deck lift and apparent lack of supervision. It's a cargo bay mostly used by maintenance personnel, so landing a basilisk there might cause some suspicion. But hopefully we'll get in fast and out even faster, or we'll end up in pieces with the Mandalorians." She indicated a point on the blueprint; Bao-Dur's eyes registered the lift close to the bay, the automated bay control and the locations of computer consoles. _It might come in handy_, he thought to himself.

Her finger continued over to another blueprint, this one of the engine deck.

"We have to slice into this computer to unlock the main door of the engine room. The area is patrolled but not very often since the Mandalorians feel pretty safe on their command ship. But we have to remain alert for the eventuality." Her finger moved on the print "Here are the ion engines where you're supposed to place the thorium charges we'll be carrying." She looked at him expectantly. "Which are the most effective points to place them, you think?" He bent down to get a thorough look at the layout of the ion engines, read some of the data printed about them and calculated the approximately best ways of wrecking havoc. Rising again he put his finger to the first point:

"Here's the crucial point; if we place a charge here it'll start a chain reaction." His finger moved slightly. "Second charge goes here, that'll boost the reaction started by the first one and…" the finger moved again, "This will be best place for the third charge; it'll kick in if the second fails." He rose and their eyes met, she nodded in consent.

"So we fly there and board the vessel and get down there by using stealth then?" Bao-Dur summed up the mission.

"Yep and try to avoid any encounters. But just in case I'll be wearing a Mandalorian armour and helmet to blend in." Nabriah watched his face turn blank "I knew you wouldn't like it, but it's a security measure. In case your or my stealth field gives up, we need a backup plan, and that's it." She looked almost pleadingly at him.

"How's that going to work then?" Bao-Dur asked in a low voice. Nabriah drew a deep breath as trying to prepare for take-off

"If your generator would fail the Mandalorians would certainly wonder what a Zabrak was doing on their ship. So I thought since you're one and have those little horns on your head, it makes it hard for you to wear a Mandalorian helmet. Then there's also the fact that you hate them. I figured I'd wear the costume and you'd be my prisoner. That would account for a Zabrak wandering around their ship. And if my generator would quit on me, I'd just be another Mandalorian. See?" She tilted her head and sounded as if she were convincing a child about some difficult to understand necessity.

Bao-Dur looked at her for a long time, until he'd managed to convince himself it was a sound plan and the only one that'd work.

"But won't you make a very short Mandalorian?" he mused at her.

Lightning shot from her eyes; he almost ducked out of plain self-preservation. Nabriah snarled and he was pretty sure she wanted to throw something at him, but managed to restrain herself. He just had to go on, as payback for the incident in the combat training.

"Well, don't you agree?" Now his eyes were full of laughter, he could hardly keep it from spreading to his lips and he was starting to shake from trying to hold it in.

He could see she was counting or doing some kind of mental diversion to calm herself down, her head was tilted forward, fists clenched and she took some really deep breaths. She finally raised her head and looked at him.

"Well, yes, I do make a very short Mandalorian, but I've infiltrated them before and they only take me for a young male. Is that enough?" The last words came out like a challenge. But it shone through that she'd reckoned she'd deserved this considering her own behaviour and careless comments of yesterday. _Satisfying,_ he thought, this mended a bit of his wounded self-esteem, knowing that she too had her vulnerabilities. Her height, or more lack of it being one of them.

They went over the plan in detail, discussing the best time to depart and how much time the detonators would have to be set in order to give them enough time to get out. There were so many things that could go wrong, but finally they agreed on 15 minutes. Hungry as they were, they strolled over to the cantina; on the way there Bao-Dur suddenly remembered the remote.

"I've got to go get the remote." Nabriah looked like something suddenly had dawned on her; she brightened up

"Oh I knew something wasn't quite as usual, but I had completely forgotten it. Well, you go get him then, I'll get some food and a table while you're away, is that ok?"

He nodded and headed for the hangar where he'd left the remote, it was lying in the same spot as the day before, dead to the world, and it was good he thought that droids didn't have that sense of time. The remote wouldn't notice for how long it'd been shut down. He activated it and the orb immediately started to emit a series of beeps in his direction.

"What's the matter?" Bao-Dur wrinkled his eyebrows.

The remote continued to beep almost frantically he listened carefully to the droid.

"Still mad at her are you? No need to go on beeping about it though, it'll just make me more sure that you're jealous it won't make it better." The remote silenced.

He walked back to the cantina now feeling more complete when he had his little sphere following him again. Nabriah waved at him from a table in the far end of the room, he made his way there and sat down in front of her.

"Good to see you," she said.

"I haven't been gone that long," he answered and realized she'd been talking to the remote. It whirred and produced a beep in her direction, almost as if it too were taken by surprise.

"I apologize for the accident, wasn't my intention to bump into you like that. I hope none of your circuits were destroyed?" She gave the remote a worried look. "Were there?"

The following series of beeps sounded reassuring and Bao-Dur sat there looking from Nabriah to the remote and wondered what'd been happening while he wasn't looking. He shook his head "Well, actually I checked it and nothing happened to it. I've made him extra sturdy, taking reckless females into consideration." Yet again there was laughter in his eyes, Nabriah shook her fist at him in pretended anger, but there was laughter in her eyes too. They burst into laughter at the same time.

After the meal they went for some stealth practice, Nabriah made it a lot more difficult for him this time. Using movement sensors that were practically impossible to fool, he failed a couple of times and she patiently told him all the possible ways there were to cheat them and showed to him what he'd done wrong. She made him practice for hours until she was satisfied with him. Nabriah looked at the chronometer, sighed and said;

"That's enough for today Bao-Dur." He liked the way she said his name, but then he was getting more and more attracted to her by the minute. He'd found it hard to breathe when standing close to her, feeling the warmth of her body, enjoying the scent of her hair. She was so tiny, he thought, but he knew no man would ever sweep her off her feet without her consent, with the day before in the training ring fresh in mind. "Are you listening to a word I'm saying?" Suddenly her voice broke through his daydreaming, startling him. "Uh..?" was all he managed to get out.

Nabriah raised her brows and her facial expression turned doubtful as if she were considering him to be either very absent-minded or just plain stupid. "When we're out there you cannot behave like this." Now she looked worried. "Our survival depends on our awareness and demands that we're totally focused on what we're doing. If you're going to act like this we'll end up in a lot of different places... at one time..."

Bao-Dur couldn't help it, but he found her description of their future fate should he turn absent-minded quite funny; a wide grin spread on his face, his eyes glittering with laughter.

"You're totally crazy, even for a Zabrak," Nabriah smiled wryly back at him shaking her head. She sighed, looked him deep in the eyes and went on "As I was saying when you were somewhere else in spirit, tomorrow night it's time for the real thing. You still feel up to it or...?" She left the question hanging in the air.

"I'm still game, no need to worry. I'll get those detonators in place," he replied dryly.

"Good. Time to get some rest then. Tomorrow we'll be busy making the final preparations, checking the equipment and getting some up-to-date intelligence."

They walked together towards the quarters and he found that hers wasn't that far from his. They stopped outside her door. She had a strange look in her eyes that he couldn't interpret, almost as if she was searching for something in his eyes. Bao-Dur stood in front of her, wanting to say something, but too afraid to either scare her off or that she'd mock him like she'd done the day before. So instead he said nothing; neither did she. There was an uncomfortable silence and Bao-Dur started to shift his weight from one foot to the other and Nabriah seemed like she had taken a great interest in the stars above.

"Uh. Well... Good night then," he mumbled feeling like a jerk.

"Eh, yeah, sleep tight," she replied almost reluctantly as if she too wanted to say something._ I'm probably just imagining things, time to sleep, perhaps for the last time… who knows? _

Next morning he woke up sweating and with his dreams fresh in mind. The mere thought of them made him embarrassed. Now she had snuck into his unconscious fantasies as well, he just hoped it wouldn't show in his face when they met exactly how explicit they'd been. His body was aching for relief, and there was only one way to get that. He headed for the shower feeling ashamed of himself, his head full of flashes from the dreams he'd had. A shiver went down his spine, _oh, the thought of her body, her eyes in the dreams full of desire and lust..._He just couldn't get those pictures out of his head. Bao-Dur felt guilty about the way his body reacted to her and he really tried to conceal his feelings in her presence. But it was increasingly difficult to keep his desires in check. He swallowed hard and practically ran towards the showers...

Nabriah was on her way to the hangar when she caught a glimpse of Bao-Dur hurrying somewhere with a determined look on his face. Being the curious kind of person she was, she couldn't resist the impulse to turn on the stealth generator. She sneaked behind him at a short distance, just enough so he wouldn't detect her. His path lead into a building she'd never been to, so unknowingly she kept on following him. She hurried to get close enough to be able to enter the door without raising his suspicion.

The door slammed shut the second she'd entered, not until then she realized where they were. The men's refresher room... it was empty. _Thank the Force_! she thought to herself and then it dawned on her what kind of situation she'd put herself in... Nabriah wouldn't be able to leave until Bao-Dur did, he'd surely notice the door opening by itself and knowing him he'd make a pretty accurate guess of who'd been there... and she didn't really want to be on the receiving end of his anger_... Oh no..._ Considering how he'd reacted when he found out she'd been spying on him working and this... was just far worse...

_Well, I've really done it this time..._ mad at herself for not thinking before acting. She sent a thankful thought to her former teacher for teaching her an old technique which made it possible to hold your breath for long periods of time; it would surely come in handy now. Bao-Dur was getting undressed, pulling the t-shirt over his head, revealing bulging muscles and, to her surprise, tribal tattoos; winding, entwined in some places, both on his back and chest ending on the edges of his broad shoulders. In his calm way he unbuckled his belt and began taking off his pants. Panic started to rise within Nabriah; she wanted to turn her back and stop watching him, but... it was as if she were glued to the floor.

Bao-Dur's secret audience watched with wide open eyes as the last of his modesty fell to the floor. His current state was difficult to miss, and she wondered, with something like jealousy, who had caused that reaction in him. She berated herself for looking, but she couldn't tear her eyes away: he was really something special. Her pulse quickened as she watched him enter the shower, allowing the water to cascade down his chest and limbs. She traced the flow of the water, the motion of his hands. She nearly gasped out loud as she recognized a tell-tale rhythm in his movement. She knew she should turn away, but she couldn't: she had become as a statue, staring unblinkingly as his body began to shudder. She longed to reach out to him...help him with this task. Then she heard it:"Na-bri-ah" he breathed as his struggle calmed itself and he leaned against the wall of the shower.

_Did he...? Was it... my name..? Was I the object of his fantasies? _the realization, that it might be her fault he'd been in such a state, hit her in the gut. At the same time it gave her a jolt of hope, that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. She wished she'd had the guts to turn off her stealth belt and step into the shower with him. Shaking from withheld excitement, her blood rushing through her veins, heart throbbing... the impact of desire making her legs feels like jelly. She wanted to run away and hide out of shame. This very moment she wanted to die, feeling she'd violated Bao-Dur's' privacy severely by spying on him. There were no extenuating circumstances that ever could apologize for her behaviour. This was going to have to become her secret; he'd never forgive her if he'd get to know she'd seen this...

Bao-Dur got out of the shower looking more relaxed than ever; he quickly got dressed before her veiled eyes and left with her tagging along, feeling exhausted and afraid to reveal her presence. He headed for the munitions depot and disappeared through the door. Nabriah started to run frantically towards the hangar. She ran as if she'd been chased by a pack of Kath hounds that hadn't been feed for ages. Once inside, she clutched to edge of the workbench, leaning over it, breathing heavily, trying to gather herself and re-establish her calm. Nabriah let go of the workbench with one hand and turned off the stealth field generator in the nick of time. Just a moment later she heard his footsteps behind her...

Dreading to meet his gaze, she kept her back turned to him. She tried to seem busy updating the necessary docking codes, her hands still trembling in frustration.

The short walk down to the hangar, with a slight detour to the munitions depot to pick up the charges he needed, had cleared his mind and he felt more focused than before. Entering he found her busy updating the codes needed for permission to board the vessel.

"Did you get those thorium charges on your way down here?" she asked him in an as casual voice as she could produce with her back still turned against him so he couldn't see her face.

"Yes, I've got them right here, so…" he dragged the word a little bit, "please don't do anything rash or we'll be in space a bit sooner than we want to." His eyes glittered mischievously at her. Nabriah turned around and glanced at him, careful not to meet his eyes, with a wry smile on her face.

"You really ARE crazy," she replied, returning to work.

Bao-Dur watched her carefully; that look on her face didn't correspond with her eyes. There was something odd about them and the way she seemed to avoid meeting his... He was probably just imagining, but... He got a strange notion she was hiding something from him, and it puzzled him. Suddenly getting a flash from the previous nights dreams, he felt a sting of guilt for having them. He was so lucky Nabriah wasn't a Jedi; if she'd been able to read his mind... she'd probably struck him unconscious. He tried to remain calm and focused his thoughts on the upcoming mission.

"So... we've got the charges, stealth generators, codes and I'll shut down the remote just before we depart." There was a sad "Bleep" coming from the remote. Bao-Dur looked at it while leaning over the workbench trying to get a clear view of what she was doing. "You'll hardly notice it; I won't shut you down longer than necessary. Anything more needing attention?" he said directed to Nabriah.

Nabriah's hands were flying across the data pad that was to be hooked up to the Basilisk's navi computer, altering the codes. She glanced at him, thinking _oh yes, there is but there's no time for that now..._ cursing the wave of blood that threatened to shoot up to her face, the mere thought making her shiver again. Instead she said: "I'm cloaking our ship, so the Mandalorian vessel will apprehend us as a cargo ship due to deliver spare parts. Apart from that I only need to change into that Mandalorian armour. The helmet won't be needed until we reach our destination. You might want to make a check on the Basilisk just to make sure everything's ok? "

Bao-Dur nodded in agreement, he left her and started to go through his usual checklist examining the ship carefully. While he did that Nabriah finished with the codes, located the stealth generators and checked them so they were fully charged. She drew a deep breath and turned away from the workbench to watch Bao-Dur's doings. The calm way in which he moved, the concentrated air on his face, the memory of his naked body... She found it hard to resist an urge to rush to him and fling herself into his arms. She promised herself that when all this was over, she'd tell him how she felt about him.

The checklist was completed; Bao-Dur threw a look at Nabriah to see what she was busy doing, and he noticed the determined expression on her face. He could tell by the look she'd made up her mind about something and making her re-consider wouldn't be an option. He hoped he hadn't been that easy to see through. The last thing he'd want was her to walk out of his life after this mission, but he might as well prepare for the eventuality even if it stung in his heart. He went over to her. "So what's next?"

She handed him a stealth belt conveying that she wanted him to put it on, seeming to be in a hurry because he almost dropped the belt due to her letting go of it much earlier than he'd expected. He raised his brows in wonder, while fastening the belt around his waist. Her next move made them shoot even further up when she started to unbutton her jacket before his very eyes.

_I owe him this_, she thought, _I've see him and it isn't more than fair he gets some kind of payback for what I did. If I'm right, he'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed watching him_. She admitted to herself for the first time to herself that she actually had enjoyed the shower incident to a certain degree.

_Whoa! Is this a dream coming true?_ he thought, tingling sensations travelling throughout his system. He tried to suppress them.

Nabriah continued her stripping down to her underwear, which consisted of a pair of military green hot pants and a brassiere of the same colour. Wide-eyed he watched, unable to avert his stare. Unfortunately for him, she didn't go any further than that. Well, he was kind of relived she didn't, he wouldn't have been able to maintain his self-control if she'd gone on. He'd probably just jumped her where she was standing and that would have been a very, very bad idea...

She turned around, their eyes getting full contact for the first time this day. Nabriah's gaze was tormented as if something pained her. Bao-Dur wondered what she saw in his eyes, _does the passion I feel for her show? Do I have the same kind of pained look in my eyes? _

Slowly Nabriah reached for the armour, putting it on carefully as effortlessly as possible. All too soon she was finished. Bao-Dur hated the mere sight of the thing she was wearing, but he also knew it was necessary in case anything went wrong. He turned his attention in the direction of the remote. Sighing he took a good look at it: "Well, it seems the time has come for me to shut you down, little friend." He felt sad that it couldn't accompany him, "This journey I have to do without you. Your presence would raise the Mandalorians' suspicion and we can't have that, can we?" He went on with a wry smile. "We'll be back soon and I'll get you activated first thing."

The remote floated towards Bao-Dur "Beep... beep! Dwooo deet!"

"No, I'll be fine, though I'll miss you floating around my head." Bao-Dur acknowledged by reaching out for the floating remote, which headed for his open hand. It landed softly in his palm, and he turned it off. With great care Bao-Dur put the remote on the work bench, reluctant to leave it behind. He gave it a last glance before commencing the final steps towards this his fateful trip.

"Bao-Dur..." Nabriah softly called out his name. Looking up at her; he saw traces of tears in the corner of her eye. It seemed the tension of the moment was getting to her as well.

"It's time..." she continued in a reduced voice. Bao-Dur turned to the control panel next to the work bench and entered the code for the hangar ports; they slowly opened showing the grey sky and the launch pad.


	4. Chapter 4

**Take-off:**

They boarded the Basilisk; this time Nabriah was a bit stiffer due to the armour, so he had to help her get into the seat. The body contact was quite distracting from the seriousness of the moment. But soon, all too soon in his opinion, Nabriah was activating switches, checking instrumentation and the Basilisk engine roared to life. Nabriah glanced sideways at Bao-Dur. "Ready?" she said, her voice trembling from the raising level of adrenaline in her system.

He took a real deep breath looked her straight into her eyes: "Yes, let's get this over with."

Nabriah turned her attention to the control panel, flipped a few switches more and the Basilisk lifted, hovering a moment before she steered it securely to the launch pad. She signalled to Bao-Dur to send the take off codes to launch command. Nabriah held the craft steady as they awaited launch confirmation. "We've got clearance to take off," he informed her in a calm voice. "Off we go," he continued, watching her in the corner of his eye. She looked collected, while making preparations to get airborne. She pushed the accelerator gauge and the ship shot up, increasing its speed by the minute.

Nabriah never felt better than when she was manoeuvring a spacecraft, with a lot of power to be harnessed, especially one like the Basilisk. She got a certain gleam to her eyes and Bao-Dur noticed her excitement. This time there was no question about the source. The skies of Lorista soon were replaced by the dark emptiness of space. Stars were twinkling bright and the goal of their short journey showed as a small dot some distance away.

Neither one spoke, for quite some time there was only the sound from the engine to be heard. Bao-Dur cleared his throat, which seemed to have dried out during take-off. "Stupid question really... but did you bring any weapons?"

A wide smile spread across Nabriah's face, she glanced at him almost chuckling. "Bao-Dur, what do you think? No, I've only got the charges; I thought we could throw them at any attacking Mandalorians we come across," she teased. "Of course I brought some weaponry! Didn't you?"

"Uh... Eh... no," he felt stupid. "I was busy thinking of the charges and checking the ship before take-off..."

She shook her head in disapproval. "Well, it's too late now. But it should be enough that I'm armed, you're so good at un-armed combat, so you'll do fine." She threw a quick glance at him. "But don't get into any ranged combat, and then you'll be fried by their blasters since you don't carry any armour." The air on her face was concerned. "Let's just hope we don't get into any battles."

_Oh, do I feel like a rookie on my first mission? This isn't even my first, I've been on several special assignments and never ever I've forgotten such a basic thing as arms_. He was glad he at least had his army knife strapped to his leg. _That could come in handy in closecombat._ Bao-Dur frowned at his own stupidity; seemed like his brain had taken a vacation at some point when Nabriah changed clothes in front of him...

As the Mandalorian vessel grew larger and larger on their windscreen, both of them started to prepare mentally for what was to come. Bao-Dur checked on the thorium charges he'd put in a belt pack; they weren't big, but they sure accomplished huge explosions. He prepared the detonators as much as he could, setting the time so they'd go off at intervals. That would leave them a slight amount of time to reach the landing bay. He was so concentrated on what he was doing, he lost track of time, not realizing how close they'd come to their goal. Not until Nabriah nudged him in his ribs with her elbow, startling him, he looked up and saw the huge hull right in front of them. She'd begun landing procedures. "Send the codes, please?"

He got to it right away, hands working swiftly on the control panel. "Done," he replied dryly. The Mandalorian ship now was so close he could see more and more details; it wore traces of more than one space battle upon its surface. He could see the gun turrets, the mouths of the escape pod bays and the landing bays. Nabriah headed for the agreed landing bay at the back of the ship, close to the engines. He was beginning to feel tense, expectant, adrenaline flowing yet faster in his veins. Nabriah commenced landing procedures; her hands working fast switching controls on or off, it was like watching a skilled musician at work. Bao-Dur was truly impressed with her piloting abilities; she flew through the narrow mouth of the landing bay casually without any incidents, safely putting down the Basilisk and shutting down the engine.

She caught her breath and turned to Bao-Dur: "Time to play rough." The flash in her eyes revealed her excitement. She grabbed the helmet while glancing at Bao-Dur. "Don't kill me by mistake!" she joked putting on the helmet.

"I'll try to prevent myself from that, but anyway your height reveals you," he replied with a wink, knowing she'd go for it. He heard her grumbling while she got out of the Basilisk, something sounding like; _he's talking about how tall I am with those horns all over his head..._ He chuckled and turned on his stealth belt before following her.

Nabriah waited for him by the control panel of the bay door; he just couldn't resist sneaking up behind her as closely he could. Then, just before she felt his body warmth, whispered close to her ear, or at least were her ear was supposed to be.

"I'm here"

"Ok, slice this door, it leads to..."

He interrupted her: "Yes, I know, I was actually there when the whole gang had a briefing, you remember? You, me, the blueprints? Or that was too many faces to keep apart?" he added sarcastically.

Nabriah wanted to kick him somewhere, but restrained herself from it. The helmet effectively prevented him from seeing the look on her face, but he could imagine what she was thinking inside of that tin can...

Bao-Dur sliced the computer almost without effort, making the door open up to the main corridor, which lead towards the engine room turbo lift.

Nabriah took a left turn and started walking in the direction of the lift, Bao-Dur following. Closely; at the moment not too bothered about keep quiet since no one else was in the hall. Her eyes were incessantly searching the surroundings; at the moment everything was ok, but she was on her toes just in case. Nabriah was quite aware of Bao-Dur tagging along behind her; she could feel his body heat, so he didn't actually keep a distance right now. It made her wonder if he was trying to repay her by distracting her. It was making her flustered... she shoved away the memories from the shower into a dark corner in her consciousness: _and stay there_, she thought. A moment later the control panel to the turbo lift turned up on their right; she moved her head in its direction, and Bao-Dur instantly walked up to it and started to slice it. As it wasn't exactly a high security computer, they were in the elevator before you could say pazaak!

When Nabriah turned on her stealth belt standing in the large cargo lift, Bao-Dur suddenly felt alone although he knew she was there. He remembered during practice when he'd asked her how they'd avoid bumping into each other while both of them were in stealth mode. She'd given him an amused look and had given him a lecture on the subject. Probably she'd found it so funny due to his superior skills concerning technical issues, and finding he actually wasn't accustomed to this part of stealth generators.

"I'll programme them to recognize one another from a distance of one meter, meaning when they sense the other, and a small electrical charge will be emitted by the belt causing you to feel a faint tingling sensation around your waist. So don't wear it too low," she'd added in a malicious tone. "Might give you another type of problem and we don't want that in the middle of enemy territory." He'd been quite annoyed with her at the time; now he smiled at the memory. The door opened up to the engine deck, Nabriah left the lift first as agreed and Bao-Dur counted to ten and then followed. They reached the main engine room entrance without running into any Mandalorians whatsoever. Bao-Dur used the codes Nabriah had supplied him with to slice the door. Inside, Bao-Dur went straight for the engine mainframe and entered another set of codes, making sure he disabled the security cams and sensors in the vicinity. Finished, he turned off his stealth field and saw Nabriah materialize out of thin air some distance away. "Ok, you get to setting those charges and I'll stay here and keep an eye on the door. We don't want any uninvited guests catching us in the act..." The helmet made her voice sound male; it disturbed Bao-Dur severely, but it was un-important now. She positioned herself beside the door where she had perfect view over anyone who'd be coming through it, though they wouldn't see her.

He complied and started to work fast and thoroughly, placing the charges and arming them. Suddenly Bao-Dur heard the door opening; he raised his gaze and saw a Mandalorian standing in the doorway, aiming a blaster rifle right at him. His heart beat faster; suddenly he realized something was missing here... _Nabriah, where was she?_ Then it all happened so fast, he hardly had time to register the chain of events until it was over. The Mandalorian made one mistake; he went further into the engine room to get a better look at what Bao-Dur had been up to. By doing so he sealed his own fate; behind him was Nabriah in stealth. Bao-Dur only saw a quick reflection of light from the Rodian blade he knew she used, and then she'd grabbed his helmet pushing it upwards to slit his throat. It was over in a couple of seconds. Bao-Dur had to admire the swiftness of her attack and the skill in handling the blade, but at the same time it made her a little bit frightening. There was so much he didn't know about her... He returned to work; finally he activated the charges. He turned to Nabriah and smiled: "Charges set and activated," he said as he quickly turned his stealth belt back on. "Let's go!"

They hurried to the cargo lift; luck was with them it seemed and no other Mandalorians were seen. But it all changed when they arrived on the hangar bay deck. The door to the turbo lift opened up as supposed to, but to their surprise there were three Mandalorians waiting for it outside. Bao-Dur and Nabriah tried to sneak past them, as agreed he kept to the right side and she to the left, making collisions less prone to occur. At first it looked like they'd made it, but Bao-Dur's stealth belt decided it didn't want to participate any longer, making him fully visible right outside the hangar bay door. Fortunately Nabriah was standing next to it, waiting for the Mandalorians to enter the lift, which they did, but the last of them caught a glimpse of Bao-Dur as he became visible. Nabriah quickly opened up to the hangar bay, gave Bao-Dur a shove in his back though the door and drew her blaster pistol yelling: "Start her up! I'll be right with you!" She opened fire and fought off the enemy until she heard the Basilisk's engines roaring from behind her back. She reached for an adhesive grenade and threw it at the oncoming Mandalorians, causing them to become glued to the floor. Nabriah ran to the ship, turning her stealth belt off on the run. Bao-Dur already had the ship hovering above the hangar floor: well aware of the time ticking away, Nabriah made a desperate leap towards the hatch. A strong arm grabbed her and hauled her into the safety of the cockpit. She clutched the steering, thrust the accelerator gauge hard forward and took off as if the Sith themselves had been at her heels.

A few moments later they were at a safe distance from the Mandalorian vessel, and Nabriah could relax a bit more. Still panting from the daring dash and the effort to get out in time, she turned to Bao-Dur: "Thanks... for the helping hand and getting this lady off the ground." The look she gave him was thankful, yet with a hint of something else he couldn't place...

"No problem," he answered, "I had to, how else would I get back?" He asked with malice, laughter bubbling inside. If she hadn't been busy flying he was sure she'd done something painful to him, so he was pretty satisfied with the fact that she was occupied. He threw a look at his chronometer. "They should go off now," he turned to see if he could catch a glimpse of the Mandalorian command ship, but there was no need. The wave from the explosion hit them hard from behind sending them into a spin; Nabriah had to work hard to re-gain control but somehow managed while swearing in a lot of different languages Bao-Dur hadn't known her to be familiar with.

Finally able to relax a bit Nabriah sank deeper down in her seat with a relieved sigh. A quick look at Bao-Dur told her he was un-harmed, and that made her happy. He looked quite shaken, however, breathing heavily and with a bit of hectic colour on his cheeks. _The adrenaline,_ she thought, _it does the strangest things to people under stress_. "Great work," she said out aloud, glancing sideways at him, getting a smile in return.

"Thanks, you weren't that bad either," he replied, and she nodded in return. Suddenly her throat had cramped up totally. _Tensions,_ she thought, _it'll pass..._

Nabriah put down the Basilisk on the landing pad they'd started out from, feeling exhausted mentally and physically. She knew from earlier experiences that this kind of work took exacted a great toll and she would be exhausted for a few days. She managed to get the craft back into the hangar, turned off the engine and just sat there. She was staring at the control panel in front of her; Bao-Dur watched her, wondering if she'd fallen asleep with wide open eyes. "Hey, let's get out of this and go grab something to eat, ok?" His concerned look made her pull herself together.

"Mmmm, sounds like a good idea..." Stiffly she rose and got out of the ship. Down on the hangar floor she started to stretch out her arms and legs to get the blood back in place. Then she remembered her outfit... The helmet had come off during flight, but the armour had to come off now, or one of the Zabrak in the camp would kill her just because of it. Bao-Dur had gone over to re-activate the remote; she watched him while she got undressed again. "There you go" she heard him say. The remote floated around him whirring and beeping, it sounded as if it was welcoming him back. Nabriah continued taking off the last remnants.

Bao-Dur turned from the remote to see her taking off the last piece of the Mandalorian armour, feeling exactly the same as before when he saw her half naked. _When will she stop doing this to me?_ he asked himself, pained. Trying to remain calm, he turned away his gaze, went over to the control panel and shut the main hangar doors so at least the rest of the base wouldn't see her in her underwear. He didn't know if he did it out of concern about her or himself just being plain jealous. When he turned he found her wearing most of her usual outfit, only the jacket remained, but she held that in her hand. Nabriah looked at him and said; "The cantina then?" Bao-Dur nodded and started to walk, the remote floating in his wake, she hurried up to his side and kept his pace.

The exploding Mandalorian vessel had been clearly visible from the military base, so everyone knew what had taken place and the commander had informed via holovid who'd made it possible. So the reception they got when they entered the cantina wasn't exactly what they'd expected. The cheering and the whistling never seemed to stop; people were patting their backs and yelling encouraging comments. The chaos was total, both Bao-Dur and Nabriah felt overwhelmed by the general excitement and didn't quite know how to handle the congratulations and other acts of appreciation. They were shoved towards the bar. "Free drinks for these two," someone shouted. _Well,_ Bao-Dur thought, _a sip of juma wouldn't hurt right now..._ a look at Nabriah told him she was thinking the same.

They simultaneously reached out for the same glass ending up with his hand covering hers. Bao-Dur felt her small, small hand shiver underneath his; he raised his gaze until his eyes met hers. Their eyes locked into each other, time freezing, the crowd and the party around them dispersing from their awareness. Hands still touching, eyes communicating more than words, the adrenaline that still flowed through both of them changing... into passion? "Come..." it wasn't more than a faint whisper that left her lips; she looked taken with the situation.

He felt her hand move underneath his, altering its position, now grasping his. Nabriah took the lead; he complied following her through the crowd towards the door. Somewhere behind them he faintly overheard someone commenting on their hasty departure:

"Leaving so soon? Wonder what they're up to?" You could almost feel the knowing glances being exchanged behind their backs. He didn't care, she didn't care, and all that mattered now was them, the acknowledgement of their feelings for one another. Nothing else, nothing! She led the way to her quarters since she didn't share them with anyone, and the remote followed them at a distance quietly whirring. When the door was shut and locked behind them, they stood there, barely daring to look at each other.

"I... "Nabriah started, but she didn't get much further; Bao-Dur suddenly reached out and embraced her, tight, hard. She flung her arms around his neck, face turned up towards his; she raised on her toes and kissed him furiously. He was surprised by the hunger in her kiss, but answered it with equal fury. Bodies pressed hard together, hands caressing, her mouth wandering down his neck and up again, kissing, nibbling his ear. He could hardly believe this, it was actually happening, it felt unreal... But the flesh his hands touched felt real enough and the response his body gave assured him he wasn't having another dream. His mouth searched and found hers again, her hands were trying to remove his shirt, his were occupied taking off her jacket... the rest was a haze. Afterwards, he could only remember how their bodies had melted together with a passion he had not thought existed: the look she had on her face when she cried out his name and bit his shoulder in the heat of the moment; his own craving for her, how he couldn't seem to get enough of her… In the end the passion they had shared that night made them balance on the edge of pleasure and pain. They fell asleep exhausted entangled in each other.


End file.
